Glimmer Of The Future
Harila Response
Hattrick Anniversary League VI.821 club Gilm FC put up a stiffer test than they were expected to, as they held the Birds to a slender 2-1 win at their Gilm FC Arena, on a calm day in Helsinki. There would be a few changes for the visitors mostly due to injury, with new guys
Egemen Dinçer Ferzan and
Damian Hutter featuring at left wing and right centreback respectively, and
José Luiz Velho returning to the forward line. Ferzan would line up against perhaps Gilm's biggest name in the 23 year-old Jussi Harila, with young Italian playmaker Piersandro Frassetto also accounted as one to come. Veteran Number Three Kaino Koskenkangas would skipper their team from the back.
It was but three minutes on the clock when Grilled Birds got in the first blow, for all of the hosts' precautions, as their young midfield buzzed about and found a way through.
Hwang Teck Fu had started the game at right wing, but there would be no rigid positions kept, as he sidled his way inside without being tracked.
Kalki Parvathaneni had noticed his movements at least, and played it into space, to which Hwang got there first and slid it past goalkeeper Aleksi Alaharju.
Thus began a day in which Alaharju's skills would be stretched to the utmost, as Grilled created openings on the regular, against Gilm's also-young-and-learning engine room.
Chad Thach tried something special from the right edge of the penalty area in the 26th minute, only to have it fisted over the bar. Ten minutes on,
Teo Chuan Yong appeared to have blasted it wide, but the referee awarded a corner for a touch off Koskenkangas on the way, which had the Gilm captain booked for dissent. This developed into an indirect free-kick in a packed box, eventually put away by
Aw Keng Chuan for 2-0.
Gilm would then have their first real opportunity of the match 42 minutes in, with Aleksi Pahkasalo getting the better of Hwang down their left with a creative dribble. The driven cross would swing all the way through to Kari Savinainen, who had come up in tandom from the other flank, and Savinainen would seat first Aw and then
Dimitris Germanakos, with a couple of very convincing feints. He would somehow contrive to slot it wide, however, which left Gilm still goalless.
Grilled Birds would make a double substitution at half-time, with
Chia Kwang Tse on for Thach, and
Radovan Jaška for
Kalki Parvathaneni, with
Mohd Marzuki Khairul rotating to the outside and Hwang in. That didn't prevent Marzuki from making his biggest contribution of the match thus far with a timely sprint into the six-yard box as Ferzan had his shot spilled across goal, but he would be mobbed by a bunch of Gilm defenders right as he got to the ball. Marzuki managed to get the touch, only for it to roll harmlessly onto the post, where it would be gratefully smothered by the recovered Alaharju.
The Finnish side had been roundly outplayed - if not outworked - all this while, but their moment would come in the 68th minute, from a link-up between perhaps their two most prominent players. Koskenkangas would advance further than he had all game as Gilm enjoyed a rare stretch of possession in the Birds' box, and sent an exquisite lob inside, weighed just right for Jussi Harila to run onto. Hutter had misjudged his attempted header then, and Germanakos was left standing on his line, as Harila banged it straight into the back of the net.
With victory on the line, Tian would send a still not fully match-fit
Moey Xin Seng on for
Teo Chuan Yong, who also took over as captain for the remaining twenty minutes of the game. Gilm should have been expected to be encouraged to try for a second by Harila's strike, but could not quite find the right setup, with first
Mohd Marzuki Khairul and then
José Luiz Velho bombarding their own goal. Alaharju blocked the first of those, while Velho's effort was not cleanly hit, and bounced tantalizingly askew.
Alaharju's excellent performance - in the circumstances - would come to a premature end, however, as the Gilm custodian pulled up sharply after yet another goal kick, in the 85th minute. German head coach Oliver Lein did not hesitate in ordering him off, with Henri Möttö to take over, and it was not like Möttö had that much to do in the six minutes left anyway.
